Canada: PEI and Quebec to Manitoba and Saskatchewan - Summer Music Festivals Mean Fun for Families. Music makes any vacation more memorable and Canadians have mastered the art of combing music with plenty of festive activities well-suited for families on vacation. From Prince Edward Island piping to cowboy ballads in Manitoba, Canadians are hosting the good stuff this summer.

PEI: Charlottetown, Charlottetown Festival. This annual summer of outstanding musical and dramatic venues, the most famous of which is exceptional and award-winning musical based on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s timeless story of the discoveries and adventures an incorrigible red-haired orphan girl called Anne Shirley. If you have girls in your life "Anne of Green Gables: The Musical" is one show you simply cannot pass up. The Spirit of Anne is a lesson by itself and this new play is a bonus. Bonus points: Children younger than the age of 16 will receive a 10% discount. (Confederation Centre of the Arts, 145 Richmond Street, Charlottetown, PE C1A 1J1. Toll-free 1-800-565-0278, 1(902) 566-1267 or www.confederationcentre.com)

Québec: Québec City, Québec City Summer Festival. The Quebec City Summer Festival has long been a beacon for French song as well as a musical rendezvous for top artists from a multitude of musical traditions and styles. With major stars from around Canada and the world, the musical phenomenon of the Festival has planned ten days of unforgettably wonderful music and performances from Le Trois Accords, Les Cowboys Frigants, Les Zapartiests, Mononc’ Serge, and Pépé et sa guitare. Bonus points:  Festival-goers will also enjoy street performers as the talented troupes use their impeccable sense of timing and improvisation to transform the Festival into a gigantic open-air big top where passers-by often end up as part of the show. This year's contingent of entertainers includes flea tamers and stilt-walkers, plus our very own circus school, where wannabe performers of every age can try a circus trick or two. ((418) 523-4540, toll-free 1-888- or www.infofestival.com  

Quebec: Montréal, Montréal International Jazz Festival. For families that enjoy great music this year’s venues are impressive. Considered one of the world’s best jazz festivals, a “gigantic party where music just won’t quit”, this year's 26th Edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal promises to be bigger, better, and more music-saturated than ever. In the heart of downtown Montréal musicians from 20 different countries will appear in about 500 performances, 350 of which will be completely free of charge, on ten outdoor stages. In addition to the performance schedule, attendees will be surrounded by music at all times during the festival as wandering Dixieland bands, roving drum sections and other street performers guarantee a musical experience unlike any other. As the Boston Herald's Daniel Gewertz states: "Nowhere else on [Earth] does music matter as much as it does in Montreal this week." ((514) 288-6730, toll-free 1-888-515-0515 or go to www.montrealjazzfest.com)  

Manitoba: Winnipeg, Folklorama. The largest and longest running multicultural festival of its kind in the world, Folklorama offers cultural experiences that will captivate any attendant. With more than forty cultural pavilions with traditional home-cooked foods available to the dynamic array of cultural performances, Folklorama is indeed an event that celebrates diversity and promotes cross-cultural understanding. (Toll-free 1-800-665-0234 or www.folklorama.ca)

Saskatchewan: Saskatoon, Annual Saskatoon International Fringe Festival. With over 400 live theatrical productions from some of the best traveling theatre companies, the Fringe Festival in Saskatoon, where “freedom of expression is everything”, promises to offer diverse range of theatrical choices and just plain fun for everyone. This year KidsFringe will include live theatre along with a variety of arts & crafts activities and games for the younger festival attendees. ((306) 664-2239 or www.saskatoonfringe.org)

Information researched and assembled by FTF. Saskatoon image credited to Barb Reimer. Copyright 2012.